How to make a blob tracking effect: without TouchDesigner

What is blob tracking?

Blob tracking is a computer-vision technique that finds and follows eye-catching regions ("blobs") in an image. On social media it is the look that went viral: thin white boxes, small labels, dots and lines that connect them over the picture. It is usually built in tools like TouchDesigner.

Retro Effect gives you the same mood in one click. One honest distinction: this effect is a look, not a real tracking system. On video the boxes do not follow an object exactly; they settle on edge and texture detail in the frame.

Step by step

1. Open Retro Effect and add your photo or video. Photos open at Story/Reels size (1080 × 1920).
2. In the Technical tab pick Blob tracking. If you want it to really find and box the objects in a photo, pick AI blob tracking.
3. Tune it with the sliders: cell size sets how big the boxes are, density how many appear, and background dim how dark the picture gets.
4. Add grain or scanlines if you like, then download. For video, the trim bar lets you pick just the 15 seconds you want and download only that part.

Plain vs AI version

• Blob tracking — places small boxes, label lines and links based on the edges and texture of the image. Works on photos and video and downloads nothing.
• AI blob tracking — finds real objects in a photo (people, cars, buildings…) with an object-detection model and marks them with labelled boxes. The model downloads on first use and then runs in your browser. For now it works on photos only; on video it falls back to the plain blob tracking.

Tip: if too many boxes appear, lower the density and raise the cell size. A few thin boxes look more "real" than a lot of them.

Tips for Reels

• Busy, contrasty scenes (street, motorbike, crowd) work best; a flat sky gives the boxes nothing to hold on to.
• Raising the background dim a little makes the boxes stand out and keeps any text readable.
• To push the same mood, try Datamosh, Depth map or 1-bit on a separate clip and cut between them.

Frequently asked questions

Is the blob tracking effect free?

Yes. No account, no watermark, no upload; everything runs in your browser.

Is my video uploaded to a server?

No. The video is processed on your device.

Do the boxes really track objects in the video?

No. The effect is a look: boxes settle on edges and texture and fade in and out smoothly. Real object tracking needs separate computer-vision software.

Why does the AI version wait the first time?

The object-detection model is downloaded on first use and then kept by the browser. In some regions the model server may be blocked; the plain blob tracking is used then.